BOOKS The Best Fiction Books Our Editors Can’t Wait to Read on Vacation

The Outsiders

In this excerpt from Still More Stubborn Stars, a novel by Paul N. Gallant, a young Roger Niese and his family arrive at Stanhope Beach on Prince Edward Island’s North Shore, their first outing since moving to the Island from Ottawa for a new job for Roger’s father Raymond. His mother Sarah has already lost interest in trying to fit into the “Island way of life” and Roger is not yet sure what to make of the Island.

BY THE TIME THEY GOT TO STANHOPE, the late afternoon air was pulling heat from land. Raymond Niese parked the car on the road that ran along the backside of the dunes. The family marched up the park’s wooden walkway.

From the deck at the top, the cool-white beach swept out in front of them. Roger was mildly resentful of his exhausted state; it had taken so long to get here. The beach was busiest near the walkway from the parking lot.

Couples and families and groups of young people drinking beer were scattered like tribes between the dunes’ peaks and the edge of the slate-blue water. The Nieses pitched their modest camp not far from a large family gathering whose territory was marked by an assortment of tents, blankets, depleted food stations, drink coolers, sandcastles, and beach toys.

The family made a show of how close it was. Granny passed a beach ball to a three-year-old, who threw it to the German Shepherd puppy who dropped it at the feet of a middle-aged man who stuffed the ball under a blanket on which a baby sat kicking its legs.

Sarah lay on her back on the bedspread she had brought, a woman on an examining table waiting for a doctor’s cold hands. Allan immediately fell asleep beside her. Raymond sat primly on the corner of a brown bath towel, looking in the direction of the family gathering. His ears were cocked for stray phrases that would provide him with an opening conversational gambit. “Not too far, boys,” he called out at David and Roger. His sons were already out of earshot, walking quickly and calmly so as not to trigger more warnings. Their decorum soon gave way to a footrace, then a shoving match. The dunes got larger as they headed west. There was no one on this part of the beach. They kept to the waterline looking amongst the rocks and faded lobster shells for more exciting treasures. “Be a seal! Walk on your hands!” David ordered Roger. “Do it and I’ll feed you fish!” David’s bossiness was much less threatening under all that blue sky. The same blue sky that was over Africa, Malta, Antarctica, and China, places Roger had seen on TV, places he was sure he’d visit someday. Roger made a run for it. He sprinted up the beach and would have clapped his hands with delight if he could have seen the sand shooting out from under his feet, like jet-bursts from a rocket. Roger zipped past an old lobster trap, orange Styrofoam buoys, and some plastic oil containers. David’s yells crumbled in the sunlight. >

Six Days in Rome

BY FRANCESCA GIACCO

IN THIS “STUNNINGLY COOL and stylish debut,” Emilia, a young artist, travels to Rome—on what was supposed to be a romantic getaway— to heal her broken heart. As she wanders the city’s narrow streets and wide piazzas, the music, art and beauty of Rome colour her dreamlike experience.

But when she unexpectedly meets John, an American expat, she’s soon navigating an intriguing connection and finding herself transformed in ways she never expected. While this novel is a meditation on self-discovery, it’s also a visceral celebration of the Eternal City.—Vawn Himmelsbach

Book Lovers

BY EMILY HENRY

IN THE LATEST FROM Emily Henry— star of the summer beach read— comes the story of one summer, two rivals and a plot twist they didn’t see coming. Nora Stephens is a cutthroat literary agent in New York City whose ‘leading man’ leaves her for greener pastures. So when her pregnant sister Libby suggests a girls’ getaway in Sunshine Falls, a picture-perfect town in North Carolina, she agrees. But Nora keeps bumping into her rival—a bookish brooding editor from back in the city—and it starts to unravel the carefully crafted stories they’ve both written about themselves. This is a tale, both heartfelt and hilarious, about writing your own love story.—VH

The Paris Apartment

BY LUCY FOLEY

FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author comes a new ‘locked room’ mystery set in a Paris apartment building, where every resident has something to hide. Jess is broke and alone, but surely everything will come up roses in Paris? Her half-brother Ben, a British journalist, agrees to let her crash at his apartment—though he doesn’t sound too thrilled about it. When she arrives at his posh, but rundown apartment, he’s nowhere to be found. As Jess starts to look for answers, she meets an eclectic bunch of neighbours: the socialite, the nice guy, the alcoholic, the girl on the verge. In this whodunnit mystery, every neighbour is a suspect.—VH

The brothers, for once, had not been instructed to stay together. Roger splashed in and out of the freezing shallow water as he ran, the smooth, flat rocks pressing painlessly into his bare feet. David did not have to be obeyed.

When Roger ran out of breath, he turned around. David was a mere matchstick in the sand, head barely discernible from his shoulders.

That also must be how Roger looked to David. Unrecognizable. He ran further. The dunes swept on. He ran past a massive piece of driftwood, grey and twisted. And then, there it was. Partly hidden from view by the log. It took a moment to figure out what it was and what its being there meant.

It was the same colour as the log, waterlogged grey. Dry and wet. Sand and clay clung to its fur. What must have been sad, stuffed-animal eyes—fodder for anti-fur campaigns— were closed. Roger was thankful. Otherwise, he would not have been able to do what he did. It was still fat. It was still breathing, very slowly. The seal was a long way from the high-water mark. Reprinted with permission from Acorn Press. ©2021, Paul N. Gallant.